Sheriff’s Major Crimes detectives were interviewing witnesses and gathering evidence.

About 90 minutes after the shooting, roughly a dozen people had gathered in a parking lot across the street, waiting for updates.

Josh Hartwig, 24, of Camano Island, was picking up his 3-year-old and 20-month-old children from a preschool nearby when he saw all the cop cars, he said.

“We ran in there and got our kids,” he said. “Nobody knew (anything). It had just happened.”

Josephine is the second largest employer in Stanwood and provides about 300 jobs, according to its web page. It offers many services including childcare and an early learning center, apartments for the elderly, 160 nursing home beds, hospice care and rehabilitation services.

Public safety officials quickly reassured people that no one else was hurt.

“No children were involved with this incident,” said Drew Bono of the North County Regional Fire Authority.

Josephine has deep roots in the Stanwood community.

More than a century ago, John Hals built the initial Josephine Old People’s Home in the midst of great loss. His young wife, Josephine Hals, died giving birth to their son. The baby died, too. His first wife, Elizabeth, and their two infants had died earlier. Hals was alone.

In his grief, he reached out.

With the fortune he’d amassed running sawmills in the Stanwood area, the Norwegian immigrant decided to build the community’s first nursing home. In 1907, he donated $10,000 to the Norwegian Lutheran Church to build a care facility in Stanwood.